Love massacre. Dee

It's not every day that someone contacts me directly with the request to review just one song. It's happened before, think e.g. that fantastic song of Lighting Vishwa Experience, 'Love when you don't want it' (read here: http://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2014/08/love-when-you-dont-want-it-lighting.html). This kind of request came in via Twitter some weeks back, so I thought why not give it a try.

The funny thing is that at first listen I really thought this is not for me. Let's say that I was on my way to the 'Thriftshop', musically that is. But when someone asks nicely and even sends the music to me, I decided to let it lie and try again later. And so I did. Fact is that after a few spins I can easily hear why this track is appealing. Who are we talking about here?

Dee is a singer from Scotland, Glasgow to be more precise. She's been living in Los Angeles for a few years, before returning to Glasgow where she started to write songs with Brian Cunningham and Paul Duffin of Axis Sounds. She's labelled R&B and that is the exact reason why I started the review like I did. There's a second reason though. The 80s synth sounds always turn the allergic red spots on arms extremely on, making me itch all over. And still I was turned on to Love Massacre in the end.

Dee promo photo

The song holds a darkness within it of the sort that makes it quite appealing. This mix of Joy Division, Tubeway Army and Depeche Mode that turns up in 10s R&B rhythms and singing actually work well. It may not be for a whole album or even an EP, but time will tell. Dee sings over this darkness with the deeper range of her voice in a very convincing way.

The text is about the dregs of love, the lament after parting. Dee has found the right melodies and tone of voice for the pain to come out and show. She talks-sings herself through the story. It has a form of rawness that suits the topic quite well. There are a few interesting harmonies going on in the background. Voices come in from all sides and the dark Rammstein like, electronically treated "aahh", is fun. I can't tell whether all the voices are Dee's, but I suspect they are. In that case voice holds a lot of surprises for the future other than the dark-voiced talk-singing she doing mostly in the front of her debut single. Disillusion is all around here, but Love Massacre allows for some sunshine as it led to inspiration and an outlet.

So don't let yourself be turned off by the first chords and sounds of the song. Delve deeper and find the beauty hidden within. Love Massacre holds promise, so I'm looking forward to hearing more at a later stage.

Wo.

You can listen to 'Love Massacre' here:

http://youtu.be/YchepeP51xQ